GIRLHOOD

[wordgobbler]

so w/ this poem I focused on the fact that some people have childhoods they need to recover from. In this poem, the character's were raised w/ their parents stripping them of their identities aside from being feminine in the most traditional sense. 

While in, ribbons around my throat
As they knitted my hair out of streamers.
Manners for every meal with crushed 
Ignorance to wash it all down. I yearned 
Stupidly: rocking chair. Light bulb. Scissors.
I kept having a dream about being in a
Garage, the smell of wood thick, and hitting
The ground until it sank beneath my crooked
Fist. I always cried when I awoke. 

Once out, I slept naked whenever I could,
Shaved my head and crammed my apartment. 
I spent stupidly: name tag. Notepad. Sheer Curtains. 
I kept waking up in the middle of the night, scared 
There would be somebody to drag me back. 

I washed my clothes and you came home with me
And that was that. She got you too, sometimes I 
Think worse, right by the fucking wrist. Sometimes 
You would turn to me in the morning when you 
Thought I was asleep and whisper it - "Am I pretty?"
And each time I kept my eyes closed. 

Each year, the farther we got from her the harder 
We had to bite down. When we died, our teeth, 
Dulled and soft, were put into a museum built out 
Of clay. That winter it was burnt down. Our teeth 
remained - pearls in ashes.